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Christian Compassion

Homily of the Day
September 18th, 2012
Food For Thought

Tuesday, September 18, 2012 by Food for Thought
FirstReading: 1 Cor 12:12-14, 27-31a
Psalm: Ps 100:1b-2, 3, 4, 5
Gospel: Lk 7:11-17

Luke, towards the end of his Sermon on the Plain, has Jesus say, “Be compassionate as your heavenly Father is compassionate.” Matthew towards the end of his Sermon on the Mount has Jesus speak the same words. Compassion is often spoken of as the characteristic virtue of
Christ and of the Christian. Today’s Gospel passage records an extraordinary miracle. In performing this miracle Jesus’ sole motivation was his compassion.

Jesus’ concern throughout today’s Gospel passage is not for the son, but for the mother. Jesus sees the body of a young man being carried out of town for burial. Luke notes that the young man was the only son of a widowed mother. Jesus is moved with pity when he sees the bereft woman. Immediately he consoles her, “Do not cry.” After he restores the man to life, “Jesus gives him back to his mother.” The miracle is about the mother, not about the son. The miracle is about compassion, not about any other motivation.

The Christian, like Jesus, is to reflect in the world the compassion of Jesus’ Father. Fortunately our hearts can fill with compassion for the less fortunate, as did Jesus’ heart for the bereaved widow of Naim. However, we do not have the power of Christ. We cannot give expression to the compassion we feel, as Jesus did through miracles.

Today compassion is best expressed not by being charitable, though charity is still terribly important even essential. Compassion will create miracles when it moves you and me to participate in the struggle to change the sinful political, economic and social structures that
keep the poor poor, and the oppressed oppressed.

So we are to ask ourselves: Am I compassionate when the poor come to me for help? Does my compassion move me to cooperate in changing the sinful structures of our society? Only if we can answer “yes” to both of these questions will we imitate Jesus in making our Father’s compassion alive on earth.

One Bread, One Body

<< Tuesday, September 18, 2012 >>

1 Corinthians 12:12-14, 27-31
View Readings

Psalm 100:1-5

Luke 7:11-17

GRAVE-SINS

Jesus "said, 'Young man, I bid you get up.' The dead man sat up and began to speak." —Luke 7:14-15

If Jesus had raised you from the dead, wouldn't that inspire you to love Him with all your heart and to serve Him with zeal and total abandon? However, Jesus has raised you from a worse death than physical death. He has raised you from the death of sin.

Our lives before receiving new life in Christ were much more like death than life. God's Word describes our original state thus: "You were dead because of your sins and offenses, as you gave allegiance to the present age and to the prince of the air, that spirit who is even now at work among the rebellious. All of us were once of their company" (Eph 2:1-3; see also Lk 15:32). "Even when you were dead in sin and your flesh was uncircumcised, God gave you new life in company with Christ. He pardoned all our sins" (Col 2:13). "The wages of sin is death" (Rm 6:23). Those who do not repent are "among the living dead" (1 Jn 3:14). Even whole churches, cities, and nations can be dead (see Rv 3:1). So it is not just a figure of speech that all of us were dead. It is a literal, spiritual statement.

By our Baptism into Jesus through faith, Jesus has raised us from death (Col 3:1). We have reason to be grateful — eternally and zealously grateful. Therefore, "offer yourselves to God as men who have come back from the dead to life, and your bodies to God as weapons for justice" (Rm 6:13). We have been raised! It is true!

Love Jesus, "the Resurrection and the Life"! (Jn 11:25)

Prayer: Father, may I act like a person who has come out of the grave.

Promise: "Set your hearts on the greater gifts." —1 Cor 12:31

Praise: Tim repented of fornication and expressed it by moving out of his girlfriend's house and giving his life to Jesus.